The Quadfather
2/12/2018 11:24:02 AMThanks for the launch and high water Intel. We comsidered Campbell on our way to Cranberry.
You called the weed area’s pretty accurately on Cranberry as well. The far side of the lake is just a mess of weeds.
Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service
Saw the weather forecast for Saturday, and got real excited. First decent day to fish in at least a month. Saw that Campbell recently received a planting of 550 2+ lb fish, and made my choice.
Arrived about 8am to a completely flooded launch. Water is at least 30 yards in to the launch area. Even launching my Hobie was difficult. Started my troll, heading along the north shoreline heading east towards hwy 20. Within the first 20 minutes, I got a hard takedown and landed a nice 19 in rainbow. Fish was caught on a black woolly bugger trailing a prototype Elgin Fishing dodger that I have put moon jelly tape on. Fish was caught at 5 feet in about 12 feet of water. That was it for action for the day. I fished until 1pm, trying all different areas of the lake, different depths and different types of gear. If I had it, it spent time in the water. I even tried dragging near bottom around the island.
Water clarity is absolutely horrible. If I had to guess, 1 foot of visibility at the very most. I think you need to hit the fish on the nose with your gear to get their attention.
2 take aways from my trip. 1) Water clarity, as mentioned is a mess, along with the high water level. If you have a boat with any size, be prepared to get wet and possibly be launching in a foot of water with 30 yards between you and dry land. 2) the fish I cleaned was absolutely stuff full of dirt, grass, bark, and anything else it could fit in it's mouth. I've never chased recent plants, but this was crazy. Entire digestive tract was full of garbage. I don't think these fish have yet to figure out what's food and what's not, or maybe the lack of water clarity is causing them issues.
It was a beautiful day though to finally get back out on the water. I was hoping for better success, but hey, that's fishing!
Available Fishing Guide:
Website: Darrell & Dads Family Guide Service